Sri Lanka compresses an astonishing diversity of landscape and culture into a landmass smaller than Ireland. Within a few hours’ drive you can move from ancient kingdoms carved in stone to rainforests dripping with endemic birdlife, from surf towns to elephant corridors, from colonial forts to cloud-wrapped tea estates. Each region holds its own character, rhythm and reason to arrive slowly.
Hikkaduwa has been a traveller destination since the 1970s and has accumulated a relaxed, lived-in energy unlike anywhere else on the coast. Its coral sanctuary, one of the few remaining accessible reef systems on Sri Lanka’s southwest shore, sits close enough to wade to – and its turtle population is a genuine and consistent presence year-round.